Her mother had ordered her to turn down her music so now she had her ear buds in. When she'd pounded on the door, it looked like she had been crying. Her mother was not a cryer. She suddenly felt terrible for giving her a hard time earlier. She'd messed up and then pushed things too far.

She turned back to the beginning of her social studies chapter once again. They were writing their first paper, addressing the contributions of the Ancient Greeks to modern society. It was brutal. There was a specific format she was supposed to follow and it didn't make sense to her. Why did it matter the format if all the information was there? Mr. Martin sucked.

She did the best she could and hoped for the best. It was just a rough draft for now. She pulled out her phone and opened Twitter. Of course she followed Lin and was grateful he tweeted often. Seeing what he posted always made her feel better. Maybe he'd tweet about her at some point. That would give her some cred at school.

Emilia avoided her mother for the evening and went to bed around ten. The next morning, she treaded carefully, saying very little. Her mother seemed more refreshed and ready for the day. She reminded her to come straight to her office after school. There would be no more "study dates".

Emilia made it to school on time and started to trudge through the day. She groaned as she entered history class, wondering what hell Mr. Martin had in store today.

The bell rang and he got right to it. "Alright!" He clapped his hands together. "Take out a blank piece of paper. Pop quiz."

Her heart sunk and she felt like crying right there on spot. He expected them to master the reading AND turn in a rough draft? Emilia slowly got out a paper, blinking back tears. She knew she was going to completely bomb this.

The palms of hands became sweaty, and it felt as if someone had turned the thermostat up ten degrees in the last minute. She tried to focus: on the pen, on the piece of paper, and on anything she had possibly retained in her brain over the past two nights about Greece.

"Question 1, What was the last period of Ancient Greece called before they were conquered by the Romans?"

Emilia tapped her pencil on her paper, scouring her brain for any tidbit of knowledge but drew a blank.  The noise of her pencil resulted in glares of other students around the room. But she didn't care about them. She only cared about figuring out the answer.

She didn't have time to think because Mr.Martin was already on the second question. She quickly scribbled an answer down, not even remotely thinking she got it right. The next three questions went in a similar fashion, the heat of the room becoming more smothering.  She took off her cardigan to try to cool off, but it was to no avail.

"Last question, what major civilization that came soon after the Greeks was greatly influenced by their culture?"

Emilia barely knew anything about Greek culture, and now she had to figure out the culture of another? Was Egypt even a civilization then? God, why couldn't this be multiple choice? As her eyes glanced around the room, she could see the other students writing their answers down quickly with ease. None of them looked stressed, as if she was the only one who knew this was even a pop quiz. Their confidence only made her feel more inferior.

"Time's up. Pencils down and I'll come and collect your papers."

Lia looked down at her paper to see the last question unanswered as it was taken off of her desk. The tears that had been held in her eyes were at imminent risk of causing her to be known as the girl who loses her shit in class.

She inched her hand up slowly and waited until Mr.Martin excused her before she quickly gathered all of her things, not caring her ridiculous she probably looked packing up in the middle of class, and went to the bathroom.

When she finally got into a bathroom stall, Lia broke down. The tears couldn't stop streaming down her face, and her sobs became even harder when she thought of the likely possibility that she hadn't gotten a single question correct. Before Hunter, she was a star student. She had always made honor roll and was getting asked to tutor struggling students. Now, she was the struggling student with no friends who was sobbing in a bathroom stall with four hours of the day still left.

She considered calling her mom, but after their previous night she didn't want to bother her. She also knew after yesterday there was no way she could skip all of her classes. She settled on the decision to continue to cry in the bathroom until the period bell rang. It was only then that she attempted to wash her flaked mascara off, fix the blotches of red with some powder she had in her bag, and put on a forced smile as she headed off towards her class.

Luckily her next class was English, which she was good at. She'd always been good at making up stories and writing tales. It was one of the reasons she was so in awe of Lin. Maybe one day she could be half as talented as him. The book discussion and writing activity put her in a better mood. Still, she was shaken by her history experience.

She dutifully made her way to her mother's office after school. Her mother was finishing an email as she plopped down in the comfy chair. A nap sounded nice, but as usual she had hours of homework.

Vanessa pressed send and turned to her daughter. She would be on her best behavior during the coming weeks. Her kid always had a guilt trip after getting in trouble.

"I got a call from your history teacher earlier," she reported to her daughter. Emilia groaned. Could this day get any worse? "He says you seem to be struggling. You failed a quiz today and then left class?"

"That's because he made us do a rough draft AND gave us a pop quiz today," she argued. "How can he expect us to do all that?"

She looked upset. Vanessa remembered her own transition into Hunter freshman year. She'd gone to a regular school up until then. The rigor at Hunter was a huge adjustment. Vanessa wasn't the type of parent to punish her kid for bad grades. She knew Emilia was hard enough on herself. What she needed was support.

"He says there's peer tutoring," she went on. "Is that something you think could help?"

"No!" She argued, offended. "I don't need tutoring."  She was not the kind of student who needed a tutor. She was the kind of student who tutored others.  To accept anything else would be an admission she was stupid and not capable. How was everyone else in class seemingly unbothered by the work load? It was so disheartening. What was wrong with her?

"Sweetheart, if you're worried about the money we can afford it," she assured her. "The most important thing is for you to be successful."

She had always been successful. Emilia had never felt like such a failure. Why couldn't she keep up? Is this what all of high school and college and life going to be like? She just wanted to go back to middle school. Things were so much easier.

"I'll be fine," she told her mom. "I just got a little behind."

Vanessa considered her daughter's statement. She tended to believe her but in this instance it seemed like she was a little over her head. She needed to learn asking for help was okay.

"Well I think we should try it," she decided. "There's nothing to lose."

"I'm not doing tutoring," she told her mother firmly.

"I think it's a good idea," she countered. "And I already told Mr. Martin you'll start next week.

Another grumble from the teenager. She knew her mother well enough there was no sense in arguing more. Never argue with a lawyer.

"And why did you leave? He said you were gone for over twenty minutes."

"I...got my period," she said evasively and quickly changed the subject for what they were having for dinner.

Vanessa began to pack up her things, ready to be home. A teenager with a bad attitude followed behind. They didn't talk as they made their way to the subway station and found their way home.

The next week, Emilia begrudgingly stayed for tutoring after school. Some pompous Junior was her tutor, and she was pretty sure he was only doing it because it looked good on his college applications. It was mildly helpful but certainly not worth $20 an hour. She thanked him politely and packed up her things.

Emilia made her way to the subway station. However, there was tape all around it. It was closed for whatever reason. It was already getting dark, she was exhausted, and she really didn't want to walk several blocks to the next station. She pulled out her phone and called her mother.

"How was tutoring?" She answered.

"Crap," she reported. "My subway is closed. Can I take a cab?"

Money was tight and cabs were expensive. She didn't want her kid wandering around when it was getting dark. Just then, Lin sent a text asking how she was doing. She thought for a moment. She didn't want to appear too eager but if he happened to be nearby...